GO APE 2009
SATURDAY 3RD OCTOBER
THE PHEONIX ARTS CENTRE, HASTINGS

PURCHASE TICKETS NOW

The History behind “Go Ape”
By Jemima Needham - Event Organiser

Two and a half years ago I was blessed with meeting the most amazing person I have ever met in my life, a beautiful seven year old girl who had the most breathtaking eyes and smile I have ever seen! She had a disability known as Rett’s Syndrome, which is a complex neurological disorder, genetic in origin. It affects mainly girls, and only a very few boys. Although present at birth, it is usually undetected until major regression occurs at around one year of age, when children will lose acquired skills. I had never met anyone like her before, I had always been very nervous around severely disabled people, never really knowing what I should say or do! This was so wrong! This beautiful little girl, made me want to do something I had rarely done before and think of others before myself! I wanted to do something that would make a difference to the people that helped her, so because of her and hours of help and support (and patience!) from family & friends, Go Ape was born! Everything we do from now on will always be in her memory. Sadly she left us for a better place on 25 th December 2008, but she is the reason that this all began!

Last Years Event

Last May we ran an event at Hurst Green Village Hall in order to raise money for three Organisations close to our hearts. We wanted to hold a Live Music Event headlining an amazing covers band I'd had the pleasure of going to see several times beforehand. The band “Ape” are absolutely amazing, they play covers of everybody and anybody perfectly from the Beatles through to Kings of Leon, The Killers and even the Scissor Sisters, they are such amazing crowd pleasers and always had every pub and club where ever we went to see them jam packed and on their feet! That’s when the penny dropped!

“I could make some serious money out of you boys!”

So “Go Ape” was born, we managed to sell over 270 tickets in advance and had 260 people attend the event itself at Hurst Green Village Hall! It was amazing; we ended the night making £3300 pure profit! We opened the event with the dancers and then the band played all night with a fantastically successful Auction in between! We were all gob smacked at the success! It was the band who made it! The support we received from everyone at the event and who helped make the event what it was, was overwhelming!

Ever since then we have people who attended the evening ask us if we will make it an annual event and where they can go to see the band! To be honest, losing the beautiful little lady that gave us our inspiration on Christmas day last year, really took the wind out of our sails and we were going to leave it for this year, but we have had so much support from everybody and such positive feedback, we’re going again! Hurst Green Village Hall just isn’t big enough to host the event this year, it was a real tight squeeze last year, but we were lucky because the weather was fantastic so a lot of people were able to gather outside. We cannot take the same gamble this year with the dates and there aren’t any venues or other village halls locally that can cater for more than 250 people, so we are taking our event to a new location and into the Town!

Where did the monies raised last year go?

• £1100 to Glyne Gap School, Glyne Gap, East Sussex
• £1100 to Ted’s Trust Fund
• £1100 to The Seven Stars Football Club, Robertsbridge

Meet this years Charities & Organisations

Chestnut Tree House Hospice

Chestnut Tree House is the only children's hospice in Sussex and cares for children and young adults from 0-19 years of age with progressive life-limiting and lifethreatening illnesses from all over the county. Completed in 2003, the hospice provides a 'home from home' environment with 10 children's bedrooms plus 8 family rooms, a wet and dry play area, computer and music rooms, a multi sensory room and hydrotherapy pool. The house is set in beautiful gardens within an area of outstanding natural beauty. There are potentially 400 families with life-limited children in Sussex. Chestnut Tree House offers support for the whole family including psychological support, care in bereavement therapy, end of life and respite care and sibling support. The hospice costs approximately £2 million per year to run. Families are not charged for their care and the hospice receives very little government funding so it relies almost entirely on the generosity, help and support of the people of Sussex.

Oliver Curd Trust Fund

The Oliver Curd Trust is a charity which has been set up by Oliver's parents, Richard and Sarah Curd, in Oliver's memory to help other families affected by childhood cancer. Oliver was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer, Ewing’s Sarcoma, in April 2006. He completed treatment at The Royal Marsden Hospital in March 2007 but unfortunately relapsed in June 2007 and lost his long, brave fight with the disease in November 2007. Since Oliver's passing Richard and Sarah have decided to register The Oliver Curd Trust officially with the Charities Commission and in June received the long awaited charity number (1124648)! In just a few months many people have been effortlessly fundraising to raise a staggering £22000 and have just purchased the first Oliver Curd Trust holiday home sited at Crowhurst Park, Battle for families affected by childhood cancer to take a well needed break before, during or after treatment. This could also included breaks for bereaved families. The holiday home is now up and running with the first family enjoying a week's break in August, a fantastic time was had by all.

Robertsbridge Bonfire Society

Last but by no means least, Robertsbridge Bonfire Society! We all go every year and have the most amazing time, but do we ever think about the costs involved in running such an amazing event or the funding required? People don’t know enough about this amazing Society and the hours that they dedicate of their own personal time to not only raise money for the best Firework event of the year, but also the monies they raise for other causes!